Malaysia is laughingly being labelled as some freakish country that knows neither whether it is here nor there ……. neither do they appear to know what they want or what they ought to be!

One day, they declare that they are open minded & evolving (read: Economic Transformation Plan’s apparent success) …… after all, the mind is supposed to be like a parachute; it only works when it is open.

The next day, they ban somebody from performing in Malaysia because that person has an unacceptable ‘mark’ on the body!

Now, we hear a group of ballerinas from Singapore are not allowed to perform in Malaysia due to their ‘despicable costumes’!

Crikey, is this a freakish ballet group or what?

I checked it out ……. and it turns out that they are just an ordinary ballet group that had done performances in Malaysia in the past.

It’s back to damage control by the political masters ……. with Minister Rais Yatim claiming that an application had NOT been submitted by the organizers, KLPAC.

This has been immediately refuted by the organizers.

So what’s the story?

This is another incident whereby Little Napoleons (within the Civil Service) with strong ‘moral & religious’ inclinations decide on what is best for Malaysia.

Not only that, it is totally contrary to what is being aspired (rhetorically?) by the Najib administration.

Another case to justify for a change in the Federal government …….. as the ‘grass on the other side CANNOT be less greener that the grass that we are on’!!

As it is often said ……. a useful tree that bears fruits will constantly be utilised by pests!!

Therefore with the oppostion controlled states of Penang and Selangor lately attracting more than half of investments in the country besides significantly contributing to the GDP of the country ……. it is only natural for the UMNO machinery to take credit for opposition states’ achievements.

For the uninitiated, both Penang and Selangor states have been under the control of the People’s Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) led by Anwar Ibrahim, Tok Guru Hadi and Lim Guan Eng since the last general elections in 2008.

And for the UMNO led Barisan Nasional government to blow their own trumpets and tell the world that the ETP (Economic Transformation Programme) has been a resounding success ………. sounds so hollow!!

Najib should realise by now that the people are quite adept at seeing things as it is ……. as opposed to how it is being portrayed by the UMNO led government.

After years of being hood-winked, the people are able to differentiate between rhetoric and hard-drawn evidence!

And if Najib and company are able to prevail in the next general elections, much of it will be attributable to the non-proportional representation in terms of voters per seat.

We have always known the Singaporeans to be a ‘kiasu’ lot …… literally meaning ‘scared to die’ or scared to lose out on virtually anything.

This may be one of the end result of the siege mentality that Lee Kuan Yew created during the time of partition between Malaysia and Singapore in 1965.

Lee Kuan Yew always talks about the intimidation and the Malaysian military on Singapore soil …… resulting in Singapore now having the fire-power to dent any aggression …… even from Indonesia!

Back to my story ……. in today’s age, the siege mentality is more confined to economics ……. like how Singapore can stay ahead of its competitors in the region or even globally.

I recall at one time, much coverage and analysis arose from the building of the Port of Tanjong Pelepas in Johore.

The Singaporean viewed this as a direct threat to its own shipping business that had one of the largest turnovers (in terms of TEU [ton equivalent units]) then …… about 14m per annum!

I recall the Singaporean business papers working overtime on the development of the Malaysian port led by Syed Mokhtar Albukary.

I even recall the PSA (Port of Singapore Authority) having to defer its IPO (Initial Public Offering) around that time although they attributed to market sentiments ……. which I felt that had to do with Syed Mokhtar’s PTP!

Fast forward to today ……. and again I am sensing the same Singaporean ‘concerns’ or shall I call it interests in the recent economic development of Penang.

The Pearl of the Orient had in the past been seen as a direct competitor to Singapore in the early 1970s especially when Penang was under the late Lim Chong Eu.

That ‘threat’ crumbled when the leadership changed to Koh Tsu Koon and his UMNO bretherens and Singapore surged ahead.

That ‘threat’ appears to be returning in the form of the Lim Guan Eng rejuvenated Penang.

Threat enough for the Singapore Business Times to publish the Bloomberg report that was originally entitled, ‘Malaysia Losses from Racial Law Exposed’.

Singapore has always responded to competition by being more proactive and value-added in it processes.

This is in stark contrast to how the current UMNO regime seems to be adopting.

In fact, UMNO’s current media spinners do no justice to the UMNO of the past.

I am of course referring to Ahirudin Attan a.k.a. Rocky.

His outsourced hatchet man, someone called ‘SatD’, runs an expletive laced blog which attempts (in expletive terms) to run down whatever achievements of the Pakatan Rakyat in Penang especially in a totally illogical ranting manner!

The best description of their attempts is pure written diarrhea ……. thank God we don’t have to listen to them, or else it’ll be verbal diarrhea!

Please understand why I am not linking you to their articles as they are bad, bad examples of communication skills!

On the other hand, let me re-produce the article from Bloomberg below that was also published in today’s Singapore Business Times under a more ‘face saving’ heading:-

PEARL OF THE ORIENT SHINES BRIGHTLY

(KUALA LUMPUR) Lim Guan Eng turned Malaysia’s second-smallest state into the nation’s biggest economic success after he bumped into two National Instruments Corp executives at the local airport in 2008.

Elected in March that year as Penang’s first chief minister from an opposition party in 36 years, Mr Lim was struggling with the prospect of federal funding cuts.

He convinced the managers to set up a research and production centre in the state, and within two years the former British trading post was Malaysia’s top destination for foreign manufacturing investment.

With a general election due by early 2013, Penang’s progress highlights the challenges facing the rest of Malaysia and the National Front government as China, Indonesia and Vietnam offer investors bigger workforces while Singapore lures talent with lower taxes and easier immigration.

Mr Lim, 50, the country’s only ethnic-Chinese state leader, embodies the contrast between Penang’s business transparency and the four-decade old policies of the ruling party that favour Malays, which the World Bank says undermine competitiveness.

‘Penang now has a chance to show that if you have good governance, and if you put fairness and justice as your main qualities, free of race considerations, that is actually the way to go for Malaysia,’ said Ooi Kee Beng, Penang-born author and a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

In the first seven months of 2011, Penang won RM3.6 billion (S$1.46 billion) of approved foreign manufacturing investment, ahead of the RM3.4 billion that went to Selangor, the state that surrounds the capital Kuala Lumpur, a government report showed last month. The state made up 8.1 per cent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product in 2009, based on constant prices.

Mr Lim has managed to keep Penang attractive for international companies even as Prime Minister Najib focuses federal support on regions such as Johor and Sarawak, where his ruling coalition has among its biggest parliamentary-seat majorities.

To prevent corruption, Penang requires open bidding on contracts of more than RM200,000 and has awarded about RM125 million of jobs through competitive tenders, according to Mr Lim. Transparency International said in a 2009 report that Penang was Malaysia’s first state to implement open tenders for government contracts.

While Mr Lim said his government awards contracts based on merit within the national guidelines, the federal government states that it has no obligation to accept the lowest offer or to give any reason for rejecting a bid.

Under Malaysian federal rules, agencies are only required to invite quotations from at least five bidders for works contracts.

The Malaysian government says it is also pushing for greater transparency, including introducing a whistleblower protection law to fight corruption and a planned competition law next year.

Malaysia’s efforts to woo investments in recent years may have been hampered by its policy of giving preferential treatment to ethnic Malays and some indigenous groups, collectively known as bumiputra, in government jobs, contracts, education and cheaper housing, said Mr Ooi.

When the economy was booming along with its neighbours before the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, the effects of the policy were less apparent, he said. When growth slowed, the race-based programme became a greater damper, according to Mr Ooi.

While the nation outperformed rivals in the early and mid-1990s, it has struggled to maintain that edge since the regional crisis.

Malaysia’s racial policies spurred a brain drain of largely Chinese and Indian minorities, and limited foreign investment, Philip Schellekens, a senior economist at the World Bank, said in April.

Mr Lim says ethnic Malays also benefit from the state’s economic growth. In the Malaysian state with the highest proportion of ethnic Chinese at 42 per cent, Malay contractors have won most of the jobs awarded by his government through the open tenders, Mr Lim said. The Malay community doesn’t need racial quotas to succeed, he said.

‘We have proven that this is the way forward,’ Mr Lim said in an interview in July. ‘Malaysia has a historical opportunity for change.’ – Bloomberg

Was it a real surprise to find out that the Government paid RM94 million of taxpayers’ money to a foreign public relations company to enhance the world’s perception of the country, Malaysia (read: UMNO)?

Was it a real surprise to read about PM Najib recruiting as advisers ….. at a great cost to the taxpayers, I am sure ……. the same strategy team that advised former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to his first victory in the British General Elections in 1997 under ‘New Labour’?

Was it a real surprise to find that this year’s Budget would mean goodies for everyone …… and I mean everyone, including the taxi drivers …… with where the money is going to come from this being wondered about by the experts!

In Budget jargon, the financing is going to come from estimated future revenue, the source of which is being seriously questioned!

Where exactly does that leave the country in the foreseeable future?

In a bigger hole, I suppose.

With the stakes as high as it is now, fundamentals have been cast aside!

It is the perception war that is being waged between the political adverseries …… with ‘no prisoners being taken alive’ so to speak ….. especially by UMNO’!!

This mode of action has even resulted in unsubstantiated allegations to be made ….. so long as it scores brownie points for UMNO!

When such unsubstantiated allegations occur especially when they involve corporate deals ….. one would usually smell a rat!

Rat ….. because it is usually done to cover up their own misdemeanours.

In one such case, you would suddenly find the UMNO bloggers alleging that DAP (the opposition political party in control of Penang, under the Pakatan Rakyat banner) is involved in the tussle for control over E&O Berhad!

For those not in the know, Sime Darby recently acquired 30% of E&O from the controlling shareholders for RM766 million or RM2.30 per share when its market price trading on Bursa Malaysia then was about RM1.30.

This deal has created a furore because, to put it in a nut-shell, Sime Darby is claiming to have NO CONTROL of E&O despite having paid a substantial premium to become the largest shareholder (30%) of E&O ….. and they purchased the block from the previous controlling shareholders!

This stand enabled Sime Darby to claim exemption from making a similarly attractive offer of RM2.30 each for the remaining shares in E&O held by minority shareholders.

Malaysians are known to be one of the worst group of people …… when it comes to reading ….. or the lack of it.

Parents have the most difficult of task in encouraging their children to read as much as possible ……. this being one of the main means in building a good English vocabulary …… for communication purposes.

Alas, not many children are prepared to do so …… and this may explain the abysmal standard of English amongst Malaysian children when compared to say 25 to 30 years ago!

It stands to reason therefore that it is the older generation Malaysians who articulate it much better.

Unfortunately, their commentary on the plight of Malaysia’s serious short-comings are hardly HIGHLIGHTED in the mainstream press and if they do, they are generally confined to the small print.

This may be due to the attempt by the current administration to create a ‘feel good’ Malaysian environment ….. as a precursor to the calling of the next General Elections!

But to be fair to the press, some of the concerns are reported and printed in the media …… but targeted only to sections of the public eg economic news, property news etc …. ie they are not targeted and highlighted for the attention of the Rakyat at large.

Let’s look at one example starting with ex-Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor, Lin See Yan, who was quoted as follows in last Saturday’s Star Biz Week whilst commenting about Malaysia’s economy:-

In this country we love form rather than context and in the process of assessment, we bastardised the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

We try to keep KPIs for the sake of the numbers. Even in education we look at how we are ranked, and we break it down and see how we can play with the numbers in order to meet (KPI) criteria so that we can be upgraded.

That is not the way, we must start from meritocracy. If you don’t do that, you can meet your all KPIs but you are still be back to square one.

As far as the Government is concerned, I am not worried about the Government per say.

I’m worried about the government agencies which are piling up debt. If you look at the development expenditure, it’s the agencies that are the big spenders. What sort of return on capital are we are getting?

We say the right things – liberalisation, bringing taxes down, taking away subsidies, but in reality we do the exact opposite.

And this is coming from someone who has seen it all ….. from the time he was Deputy Governor to Tun Ismail Ali in Bank Negara Malaysia to this present moment in time.

Doesn’t it make you shudder to think that our country’s bureaucrats have allowed the system to de-generate to what it is today?

They are now kidding themselves into believing that everything is still hunky-dory and that there is this light (artificial, I am sure) at the end of the tunnel.

Do you now know why we need a two party parliamentary system into order to keep the checks and balances working?

Click HERE for the full interview given by Lin See Yan and others to The Star.

To me, it was still quite a spectacle watching the manner in which Lim Guan Eng was hounded by his critics for his alleged disparaging remarks about Johore’s perceived lack of security from criminal elements.

You even get individuals like Rocky aka Ahirudin Attan ‘coughing’ out statistics showing the number of reported crimes in Penang exceeding that of Johore.

Such is the mentality of some that a reported petty theft in Penang is equivalent to a reported robbery cum murder in Johore!

It was good that Guan Eng offered an apology especially to His Royal Highness, The Sultan of Johore, in order to avoid the ‘elements’ from prolonging and exacerbating the matter.

Even if Guan Eng did utter those remarks, they were done in private …… and yet, there were those rats and cockroaches at every nook and cranny attempting to record what Guan Eng was uttering!

This is certainly confirmation that the paid hatchet media spinners of UMNO are bereft of ideas and stories to raise the profile and legitimacy of UMNO as a leader of the community and the country.

They have been reduced to finding faults with their opponents ….. to the point of whining ……. at events they have not been invited to!

Btw, it is in the grapevine that Penang has this year todate attracted nearly 60% of the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) that has come into Malaysia.

It may be no wonder the knives were especially sharp for Guan Eng this time round!

But well, that’s Malaysia for you!

As the old saying goes:

A USEFUL TREE THAT BEARS FRUITS WILL CONSTANTLY BE ATTACKED BY PESTS !

Click HERE for the rocky statistics ….. targetted for the un-initiated!